What is Macbeth About: Ambition, Witches, and the Tragic Descent into Madness

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth becomes a killer to many people close to him. Macbeth was Thane of Glamis, but King Duncan thought he was doing well in war. In reward, Duncan gave Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor, which was a very high ranking in Scotland. Being granted the Thane of Cawdor, however, was not good enough for Macbeth, causing unusual behavior of him to kill the king and others. As Macbeth was king, he caused great chaos in the Scotland, and causes jeopardy for everyone's life close to himself. Fate was not needed for Macbeth to kill. The killings were brought out by the witches, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth's insanity.

Macbeth's actions are caused by the three witches. The three witches are portrayed as being evil and reprehensible for Macbeth's behavior. Every time the witches appear, there is thunder and lightning to portray how they are shown as somber, and evil people. The witches plan to meet Macbeth after the war is over. When they meet him, they tell him, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”(1.3.53). Macbeth does not know of him being king, but the witches give him this prophecy to be fulfilled.

The witches seem to control Macbeth's life throughout the play. The witches gave the prophecy to Macbeth, making him have the idea of being king, and wanting to kill Duncan. After killing Duncan, Macbeth wanted to kill Banquo, since he did not want Banquo telling people that Macbeth is the murderer. Hecate, who was in charge of the witches, brought forth the witches in a way, but did not tell them to get involved with Macbeth's life. The witches decided to lead on their own, not with Hecate and ruin Macbeth's life, knowing he would listen to them. Also, the three apparitions that the witches brought forth made Macbeth think that he would not be killed, and he would live in the power of being the king of Scotland forever. The second apparition tells Macbeth, “The power of man, for non of woman born/Shall harm Macbeth”(4.1.91-92). The apparition tells Macbeth that he will not die unless something not born from a women kills him. This apparition gives Macbeth high hopes of living, because he thinks no one is eligible to kill him now.

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Macbeth's actions are also caused by Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth, telling her about the prophecy. Lady Macbeth is very belligerent and eager to find out they will get the chance to rule Scotland, and she goes to extremes to make sure it happens. Lady Macbeth is the one who comes up with the idea of killing Duncan in the first place, to get the throne.  Macbeth was against killing Duncan, but soon enough, he gave in. “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty”(1.5.48.49). Lady Macbeth knows Macbeth will not want to kill Duncan, because he is a coward, so she decides to kill Duncan herself. When Macbeth finds out about Lady Macbeth's evil plan, he does not know what to do. Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth, “Only look up clear./To alter favor ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me”(1.5.84-86). Lady Macbeth decides to have Macbeth be the one to kill Duncan, but it will be all in the hands of her to plan how to kill the king.

Finally, Macbeth's actions are caused by his insanity. Macbeth goes insane right from before killing Duncan up until when he is killed. Macbeth feels extreme guilt after killing Duncan, saying “Will all Neptune's ocean wash this blood. Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather. The multitudinous seas incarnadine. Making the green one red”(2.2.78-81). Macbeth thinks that after killing Duncan, the blood will never come out of his hands, or making the whole sea red of the blood, because of how much guilt he has for killing Duncan. Macbeth also has very severe hallucinations throughout the play. “Is this a dagger which I see before me. The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee”(2.1.44-45). Macbeth pictures a floating dagger in front of him before killing Duncan. Macbeth then follows the dagger, leading him towards Duncan's room to kill him.

Also, after Macbeth killed Banquo, Banquo appeared at a feast, making Macbeth go crazy in front of everyone. “Were the graced person of our Banquo present. Who may I rather challenge for unkindness. Than pity for mischance”(3.4.47-49). Macbeth tries to make it seem that when talking to Banquo's ghost, that he is not at the feast because of something bad happening, but because of rudeness, but no one knows what he is talking about. Macbeth is always worried someone is going to find out about the killings he is doing, so in order to stop people from knowing, he needs to kill everyone.

Macbeth's actions are a cause of fate. If it weren't for everything in his life controlling him, Macbeth's personality would be great and he would have settled for Thane of Cawdor. Instead, the witches didn't obey Hecate. Also, Lady Macbeth focused too much on the power in Scotland than the power of Macbeth's and her love for each other, leaving them both miserable and guilty. Macbeth let his insanity get to him by keeping killing people, but he did not stop, causing his insanity to grow.

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